Peter's first degree was a BA (Hons.) in Physics at
Churchill College, Cambridge. While at college he was an assistant on the "Hudson-70"
Expedition, an 11-month Canadian cruise which accomplished the first circumnavigation
of the Americas. This included multidisciplinary oceanographic and marine geophysical
work in South Atlantic, Antarctic, Chilean fjords, S and N Pacific, Beaufort Sea and
NW Passage.

From 1970-74 he studied for a PhD at the Scott Polar Research
Institute, University of Cambridge on "The effect of a sea ice cover on ocean
surface waves". His PhD was awarded in April 1974. From 1974-75 Peter was a postdoctoral
fellow at the Institute of Ocean Sciences, Victoria, B.C., Canada, working on
sea ice structure and dynamics in the Beaufort Sea and the impact of oil spills.

In January 1976 Peter returned to Scott Polar Research Institute,
University of Cambridge, initially as a Senior Research Associate (Principal
Investigator for Office of Naval Research). From 1981 he was an Assistant Director of
Research; from 1987 to 1992 Peter was Director of the Institute. From
1992 he was a Reader in Polar Studies, and in 1994 was awarded a ScD (Cantab) for
published work. Since 2001 he has been Professor of Ocean Physics.

In January 2003 the Sea Ice and Polar Oceanography Group
moved to the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical
Physics, University of Cambridge - with an observational science section based
in the Scottish Association of Marine Science (SAMS) at Dunstaffnage
Marine Laboratory (DML), Oban, Scotland.

Peter has also held the following visiting positions:-

1980-81. Office of Naval Research Chair of Arctic Marine
Science, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California.
1987-88. Cecil and Ida Green Scholar at Institute of Geophysics and Planetary
Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla; and Walker-Ames
Professor, University of Washington, Seattle. Further visits to Scripps in
1988-9 and 1989-90, working with acoustic tomography group (Walter Munk) on effect of sea
ice on acoustic travel time changes.
1995. Invited Visiting Professor, Arctic Environmental Research Centre, National
Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, Japan.
1996-7. British Council - Monbusho Visiting Professor at Graduate University of
Advanced Studies, Tokyo, Japan, based at National Institute of Polar Research. Further
visits undertaken in 2000-1 supported by Royal Society grant for developing Anglo-Japanese
collaboration in Arctic marine science.

1983-93. Senior Research Fellow, Churchill College, Cambridge.

HONOURS

1971 Bronze medal, Goverrment of Canada, for being one of six to
complete "Hudson-70" circumnavigation.

1977 W.S. Bruce Prize, Royal Society of Edinburgh, "for oceanographic
investigations and for studies of pack ice behaviour near Spitsbergen, the North Pole and off East
Greenland".

1983 Elected Fellow of the Arctic Institute of North America "in
recognition of significant contributions to the knowledge of the polar and sub-polar regions"

1987 The Polar Medal (presented by H.M. The Queen)

1990 Italgas Prize for Research and Innovation in Environmental
Sciences, Turin. Currently member of Club Premio Italgas, organising research network on sustainable
development.

Member, SCAR (Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research) Group of Specialists on
Global Change in the Antarctic (GLOCHANT), Working Group on Sea Ice: member of Scientific Steering
Committee, ASPECT (Antarctic Sea-ice properties and climate), the GLOCHANT programme for Antarctic sea
ice research.

Member, EuroGOOS (Global Ocean Observing System) Arctic Task Team.

Member, NASA Sea Ice Algorithm Working Group.

Member, Working Group 6 (Hydrology) of Commission VII (Interpretation of Data) of
ISPRS (Intl. Soc. of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing).

Peter has been a Principal Investigator for the Arctic Program (latterly High-Latitude
Dynamics Program) of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) continuously from 1976 to 1997. This
support has continued to present (1997-2001) by National Science Foundation.

During this time he has worked on:-

mapping the thickness distribution of sea ice in the Arctic from submarines (field work aboard UK
submarines, but combining the results with recent US SCICEX work, and organising campaigns by concurrent
remote sensing systems in overflying aircraft and satellites);

developing new techniques of estimating ice type and thickness from remote sensing, based on
validation experiments with submarines using SAR, passive microwave and laser profilometry;

studies on the dynamics of the marginal ice zone including wave-ice interaction, ice dynamics, ice
edge eddies (on the Steering Committee for the MIZEX Program 1981-1987 and was chief editor of the MIZEX
Science Plan);

studies on ice sheet mechanics, including flexural oscillations, questions of scaling in the
definition of sea ice rheology for modelling, role of ridge building (FRAM-2 and -3, CEAREX and SIMI
projects. SIMI involved drifting ice camp in Beaufort Sea 1993-4 and co-operative studies on sea ice
mechanics and its role in improved sea ice modelling).

With support from the UK Natural Environment Research Council and other UK
sources, Peter also worked extensively on Antarctic problems, including:-

dynamics and properties of the Antarctic sea ice cover in winter (Winter Weddell Sea Project of
1986 in German vessel "Polarstern" was first winter penetration of Antarctic sea ice; other work in
subsequent years), including use of helicopter-borne ground penetrating radar (GPR) for measuring sea ice
thickness;

physics of Antarctic tabular icebergs and their dynamical and flexural behaviour;

deployments of buoy arrays to validate sea ice dynamics models for the Antarctic pack in winter and
summer;

deployment of OSCR-II HF coastal radar system in Terra Nova Bay polynya, Ross Sea, in 1999 to map
surface current vectors as part of joint programme with CLIMA (Italian Antarctic programme) to understand
overall climatic role of coastal polynyas.

NERC has also supported or helped support much of the Arctic work described above,
including ice thickness measurement and analysis, and work on wave-ice interaction and convection in the
Greenland Sea.

A new NERC project starting in October 2001 is the AUV-under-ice programme, in
which we are funded to £208K to use Autosub in coastal polynyas in the Weddell Sea and Fram Strait.

With European Commission support Peter was Co-ordinator of a large (22
institutions from 7 countries, 8 million ECU budget) interdisciplinary study of convection and the
thermohaline circulation in the Greenland Sea, known as ESOP, the European Subpolar Ocean Programme
(1993-7). This project continued in a second phase (ESOP-2) until 1999, and he then continued similar
work as PI for a project in the NERC ARCICE thematic programme, to continue to study the Odden
ice tongue and Greenland Sea convection mechanisms. Other current or recently completed European
Commission projects are:-

As well as programmes described above, he is currently involved in an NSF-funded
programme to map ice thickness and upper ocean characteristics from the Greenland Sea and Eurasian
Basin obtained during recent (1996) and forthcoming UK submarine cruises, and to compare these with
equivalent US data from the Eurasian and Canada Basins obtained during the SCICEX program.

His chief industrial links in ice research have been with the offshore oil and
marine transport industries. He received continuous support from British Petroleum Co. from 1976 until
1992 for his research group at SPRI, covering funding of a technician and support for the design and
development of novel instrumentation for use in Arctic ice engineering, e.g. wire and rod strainmeters;
acceleration-tilt arrays; wave buoys for use in ice-covered waters; and satellite-tracked ice data
buoys. Currently his group is involved in ice buoy design and in developing IceCam, a stop-action video
recording system for unmanned monitoring of sea ice during icebreaker operations.